President Trump appears to want to make good on his promise to tear up the Iran nuclear deal. He's angry that Iran is certified as abiding by the deal even though Iran has abided by the deal. Iran threatens to cancel the deal if the US keeps adding sanctions. What's next?
By Chris Rossini
There's a lot of "left-wing" vs. "right-wing" allegations being thrown around, especially after the latest violence in Charlottesville. We're told that "leftist" Communist groups are pitted against "far-right" Nazi groups. That may well be the case, but it's important to realize that they're all Socialists! The whole left/right stuff can be dropped. They're just different brands of Socialism. It must be remembered that the U.S.S.R. stood for Union of Soviet *Socialist* Republics. Meanwhile, NAZI stood for National *Socialism.* So when you look at the ridiculous "political spectrum" that people often use, both "left-wing" and "right-wing" equal Socialism. Here's a good question: Where does it leave Liberty? Ahhh....look how that happened! Liberty is not an option.
But "no...no...no..." you might say: "Communists and Nazis are not the same. Don't you remember World War II? They killed each other by the millions."
True, but that doesn't point out anything other than the fact that socialists don't like each other any more than they like liberty. Socialism is not one big happy family. Socialists hate each other and fight viciously for power. Remember Stalin and Trotsky? Even if you have no idea about their story, just look at the more recent feud between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. Both despise liberty. Both want government to run our lives. But they don't like each other, do they? Socialists hate other socialists that disagree with them, whether it be in the former U.S.S.R. or even between politicians in what's supposed to be the land of the free. Socialists are vicious to one other because the real prize is at the top. When you're the one at the top of the socialist heap, everyone must obey you. You're the one with the master plan for humanity. You're the one with the correct blueprint for how the rest of human life should live. Everyone that happens to agree with your master plan is fine. But since people have free will to think as they want, there's always going to other socialists who believe it is they who have the real master plan. You don't have the correct blueprint...they do! Everyone should obey them! Now, in reality, neither has the correct blueprint. There's no such thing. No one has the ability to run the world and all of its peoples. There is no form of Socialism that can bring about the utopia that its adherents have conjured up in their imaginations. But that doesn't stop them from viciously fighting each other for power. And it surely doesn't stop them from perpetually trying to take away every single one of our liberties. In the end, only Liberty is compatible with human nature. We are born free and meant to remain free, no matter how many flavors of tyranny try to snatch it away. Ironically, as kids and adults try to find out where they fit on the bogus "political spectrum," it is liberty that has been taken away as one of the options.
Press Play to hear Ron Paul deliver his Weekly Update:
By Ron Paul
There is something unsettling about how President Trump has surrounded himself with generals. From his defense secretary to his national security advisor to his White House chief of staff, Trump looks to senior military officers to fill key positions that have been customarily filled by civilians. He’s surrounded by generals and threatens war at the drop of a hat. President Trump began last week by threatening “fire and fury” on North Korea. He continued through the week claiming, falsely, that Iran is violating the terms of the nuclear deal. He finally ended the week by threatening a US military attack on Venezuela. He told reporters on Friday that, “We have many options for Venezuela including a possible military option if necessary. …We have troops all over the world in places that are very, very far away. Venezuela is not very far away and the people are suffering, and they are dying.”
Venezuela’s defense minister called Trump’s threat “an act of craziness.”
Even more worrisome, when Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro tried to call President Trump for clarification he was refused. The White House stated that discussions with the Venezuelan president could only take place once democracy was restored in the country. Does that mean President Trump is moving toward declaring Maduro no longer the legitimate president of Venezuela? Is Trump taking a page from Obama’s failed regime change policy for Syria and declaring that “Maduro must go”? The current unrest in Venezuela is related to the economic shortcomings of that country’s centrally-planned economy. The 20th century has shown us very clearly that state control over an economy leads to mismanagement, mal-investment, massive shortages, and finally economic collapse. That is why those of us who advocate free market economics constantly warn that US government intervention in our own economy is leading us toward a similar financial crisis. But there is another factor in the unrest in Venezuela. For many years the United States government, through the CIA, the National Endowment for Democracy, and US government funded NGOs, have been trying to overthrow the Venezuelan government. They almost succeeded in 2002, when then-president Hugo Chavez was briefly driven from office. Washington has spent millions trying to manipulate Venezuela’s elections and overturn the results. US policy is to create unrest and then use that unrest as a pretext for US intervention. Military officers play an important role in defending the United States. Their job is to fight and win wars. But the White House is becoming the war house and the president seems to see war as a first solution rather than a last resort. His threats of military action against a Venezuela that neither threatens nor could threaten the United States suggests a shocking lack of judgment. Congress should take President Trump’s threats seriously. In the 1980s, when President Reagan was determined to overthrow the Nicaraguan government using a proxy army, Congress passed a series of amendments, named after their author, Rep. Edward Boland (D-MA), to prohibit the president from using funds it appropriated to do so. Congress should make it clear in a similar manner that absent a Venezuelan attack on the United States, President Trump would be committing a serious crime in ignoring the Constitution were he to follow through with his threats. Maybe they should call it the “We’re Not The World’s Policeman” act.
Late last week President Trump threatened US military action against Venezuela because "people are dying" there. CIA director Mike Pompeo amplified Trump's statement by claiming that Venezuela is a threat to the US because the Cubans, Russians, Iranians, and Hezbollah are all there. Why are they ramping up the war propaganda?
By Liberty Report Staff
Most people, when they "deposit" their paychecks into a bank, think that they're keeping the money in safe storage. After all, if you stored your money somewhere else, someone could steal it, right? Well, you're actually making a loan to the bank. On the bank's books, they "owe" you the money back. Your money becomes the bank's money, and you become an *unsecured* creditor. Oh you can get "your" money out ... up to a certain point. Ask for too much, and you're automatically flagged as being a possible drug dealer or terrorist. The surveillance state wants to know what you need "your" money for. But what if the bank can't pay you what they "owe" you? We've all heard of a "bailout" ... 2008 was a prime example of that. But have you ever heard of a "bail-in"? Jeff Thomas: In 2013, the banks of Cyprus confiscated the deposits of many of their clients. There was no warning, and there was little in the way of explanation, except to say that it was “necessary,” as the banks had been mismanaged to the point that, unless the deposits were confiscated, the banks would fail.
Read more about "bail-ins" at International Man
By Liberty Report Staff
The U.S. Constitution is not very complex. It was designed to "chain down" government. After all, government is the most violent and vicious institution on the planet. Most people have to keep learning that the hard way. The natural tendency of government is to constantly expand its scope. It wants no limitations on the violence that it inflicts, and it surely doesn't want to be "chained down" by anyone or anything. All politicians in the United States swear to uphold the Constitution. Bibles are used ... big hyperbolic speeches ... marching bands ... the whole nine yards. Yet, immediately after the pomp and circumstance of the "swearing in," the U.S. Constitution is almost completely ignored. A vast majority of everything the federal government does is purely unconstitutional. The Constitution, instead of chaining down the government is but a tourist attraction. It's in the National "Archives" building for those who care to see what the whole "supreme law of the land" talk is all about. It's archived. Here's a very simple visual guide on the job of the President of The United States. President Trump should take a look:
You see...It's not very hard to understand.
Social Security requires a bailout that’s 60x greater than the 2008 emergency bank bailout8/12/2017
By Simon Black
A few weeks ago the Board of Trustees of Social Security sent a formal letter to the United States Senate and House of Representatives to issue a dire warning: Social Security is running out of money. Given that tens of millions of Americans depend on this public pension program as their sole source of retirement income, you’d think this would have been front page news… … and that every newspaper in the country would have reprinted this ominous projection out of a basic journalistic duty to keep the public informed about an issue that will affect nearly everyone. But that didn’t happen. The story was hardly picked up. It’s astonishing how little attention this issue receives considering it will end up being one of the biggest financial crises in US history. That’s not hyperbole either– the numbers are very clear.
The US government itself calculates that the long-term Social Security shortfall exceeds $46 TRILLION.
In other words, in order to be able to pay the benefits they’ve promised, Social Security needs a $46 trillion bailout. Fat chance. That amount is over TWICE the national debt, and nearly THREE times the size of the entire US economy. Moreover, it’s nearly SIXTY times the size of the bailout that the banking system received back in 2008. So this is a pretty big deal. More importantly, even though the Social Security Trustees acknowledge that the fund is running out of money, their projections are still wildly optimistic. In order to build their long-term financial models, Social Security’s administrators have to make certain assumptions about the future. What will interest rates be in the future? What will the population growth rate be? How high (or low) will inflation be? These variables can dramatically impact the outcome for Social Security. For example, Social Security assumes that productivity growth in the US economy will average between 1.7% and 2% per year. This is an important assumption: the higher US productivity growth, the faster the economy will grow. And this ultimately means more tax revenue (and more income) for the program. But -actual- US productivity growth is WAY below their assumption. Over the past ten years productivity growth has been about 25% below their expectations. And in 2016 US productivity growth was actually NEGATIVE.
By Jacob G. Hornberger
Lesson 1: Socialism doesn’t work. Free schooling. Free health care. Free retirement. Free welfare. Free everything. It just doesn’t work. Taking from the rich and giving to the poor ultimately makes everyone poor—i.e., the total equality of wealth that leftists love. Socialism produces economic crises, which then produce calls for more socialism and interventionism, which produce more crises. The cycle continues until there is a complete government takeover of economic activity, which necessarily entails a complete takeover of people’s lives and resources. Lesson 2: Democracy is not freedom. Oftentimes it destroys freedom. That’s why the Bill of Rights protects Americans from democracy. Moreover, democracy oftentimes ends up with unsavory candidates and public officials, as both Venezuelans and Americans have recently learned. Democracy simply provides a peaceful means by which people can elect public officials who run the government. Oftentimes, however, democracy is used to elect people with dictatorial power, as we have seen in Venezuela. Freedom entails restrictions on the power of those in office.
Lesson 3: Gun control deprives people of the ability to violently overthrow a tyrannical regime. The U.S. press is describing the Maduro regime as tending toward dictatorship and tyranny. That’s nonsense. It’s there. The Maduro regime is the model of dictatorship and tyranny. Its power is now omnipotent, and it’s being used to jail and kill opponents and dissidents. As Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence, when government becomes destructive of the rights of the people, the people have the right to violently overthrow the government. Yet, to do that, they need guns. Without guns, there are but two options: Acquiesce to the tyranny or die. With guns, there is another option.
Lesson 4: A national-security apparatus —i.e., a permanent standing army and secretive intelligence force—is the means by which a dictatorial regime imposes and enforces it rule. Soldiers obey orders. If they are ordered to quell dissent, they will do so. And even if the military establishment turns on Maduro and takes power in a coup, as some people are hoping, the country will be no better off, as we saw with the CIA-installed regime of Augusto Pinochet in Chile. The coup will bring rapes, kidnappings, executions, torture, indefinite detention, concentration camps, and other such things that characterize military regimes. Different victims. Same sort of tyranny. What should Americans do about Venezuela?
This article was originally published at the Future of Freedom Foundation.
See those people over there? They've racked up $20 Trillion in debt. You should really loan them your hard-earned money. Their debt is considered "the world's safest financial asset." Sound like a good deal? Ron Paul on the world's biggest deadbeat, today on Myth-Busters!
According to a recent Pew Poll, the United States is viewed by the rest of the rest of the world as the greatest threat to world peace. Is the rest of the world tiring of the US global military empire, and how might it end? With special guest, Mises Institute Founder Lew Rockwell. For tickets to the Ron Paul Institute conference: RonPaulInstitute.org/conference
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